ABSTRACT
This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the relationship between
endotoxin levels and presence of clinical signs/symptoms and radiographic features
in patients with endodontic infection. Electronic searches were performed on Medline/PubMed,
Embase, Cochrane Library, Scielo, Science Direct, Web of Knowledge and Scopus databases
for identification of relevant studies published up to December 2016. Grey literature
was searched in Google Scholar. The selected literature was reviewed independently
by two authors. Clinical studies evaluating the levels of endotoxin and the presence
of clinical and radiographic features were included in this review. In order to determine
the relationship between endotoxin levels and presence of clinical signs/symptoms
and radiographic features meta-analyses were performed. Among the 385 articles identified
in the initial search, 30 were included for full-text appraisal and only eight studies
met the inclusion criteria for this systematic review. Meta-analysis revealed that
individuals having teeth with tenderness to percussion (TTP) (P = 0.04; I2 57%) and previous episode of pain (PEP) (P = 0.001; I2 81%) had higher levels of endotoxin than their counterparts. Size of radiographic
lesion >2 mm (P = 0.02; I2 68%) and presence of root canal exudation (EX) (P = 0.0007; I2 0%) were associated with higher levels of endotoxin. This systematic review and meta-analyses
provided a strong evidence that endotoxin are related with the presence of clinical
signs/symptoms and radiographic features in patients with endodontic infection.
Key words:
Endodontic treatment - endotoxins - meta-analysis - systematic review